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A local group advocating for "white people's rights" will host a celebration Saturday in a Moosic public park featuring a presidential candidate who thinks the United States is "degenerating" because of rising minority populations.

The European American Action Coalition, founded by a man with past ties to racist skinhead groups, has scheduled its Third Annual European American Heritage Celebration from noon to 6 p.m. at Mercatili Segilia Park.

"I don't hate other races," said Steve Smith, the coalition's founder, in an interview Wednesday. "I advocate on behalf of whites just like the NAACP advocates on behalf of blacks and (others) advocate on behalf of Hispanics."

The celebration's major scheduled guest is Merlin Miller, the presidential candidate of the American Third Position Party. Not on the ballot in Pennsylvania, Miller believes the U.S. is "degenerating from a predominantly white, Christian nation" and turning into "a third-world tower of Babel" because its minority populations are growing, according to his campaign website.

"At our current rate of demographic change, an American born in 1965, part of the 90 percent (white) majority, will die at the modest age of 77, as a minority in their own country," Miller's website says. His party, he says, "stands to protect white American interests."

"This does not make us racist, but protective of our rights - which every other race or group is encouraged and praised for doing," his site says.

Miller also advocates providing "generous grants" to American citizens naturalized since 1965, so they can voluntarily return to their native countries, according to his website.

"He's not saying kick them out," Smith said.

Though Smith and Miller claim they are not racists, history and information available from an organization that tracks hate groups raises doubts about the benign nature they claim for their white advocacy.

In 2003, Smith and two other men were arrested in Scranton and charged with yelling racial slurs and throwing a brick at a black man. He later pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation and simple assault. In a recent interview with The Citizens Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Smith attributed the incident to "drunken stupidity" and pointed out no one was hurt.

At one time, Smith also acknowledged membership in two other racist groups, Keystone State Skinheads and its successor, Keystone United.

Keystone United is "one of the largest and most active single-state racist skinhead crews in the country," according to the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Birmingham, Ala.-based watchdog that tracks hate groups.

Given Smith's past, the Luzerne County Republican Party is considering removing him from a party post, a move he dismisses as unconstitutional. With a single vote, his own, and with no one else on the ballot, Smith was elected a Republican committeeman in Pittston in the April primary election.

The law center identifies the American Third Position Party as one "initially established by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to white rule.

"The American Third Position exists to represent the political interests of white Americans," the party's website says, according to the law center. "We want an America that is recognizable to us, one that we can feel comfortable in."

The party's website was inaccessible Tuesday afternoon. Smith denies he or the coalition are white supremacists and says he is no longer a member of either skinhead group. Smith said blacks, Asians and other minority groups are welcome.

"As long as they don't disrupt it - we're going to have security there - they're more than welcome to come," he said.

bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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